Performing the Future was a year long experimental process, exploring how we can envision positive futures in response to the anthropogenic climate and environmental change happening now on planet Earth, caused by humans, our industrialisation and reliance on fossil fuels.
Performing the Future involved a series of experimental artist-led labs, public labs, research based workshops and a national tour of the extended version of artwork The Prediction Machine, taking place between June 2017 and June 2018. This website acts as documentation and information about the project.
The project is took place in five regions across England – Cambridge, Liverpool, Nottingham, Oxfordshire and Cumbria, providing opportunities to reflect on these different localities and consider how our localised and situated experience of environmental change impacts on us. Exploring what it might mean for our home environments (landscape, resources and climate) to fundamentally change, whilst considering universal, collective and global narratives and perspectives.
Performing the Future was led by the artist/researcher Rachel Jacobs in collaboration with Juliet Robson, Frank Abbott, Wallace Heim; Steve Benford, Dominic Price and Lachlan Urquhart (University of Nottingham); Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol); Candice Howarth (University of Surrey); Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley, John King, Bianca Perren and Robert Mulvaney (British Antarctic Survey); Robin Shackford, Matt Watkins, Caroline Locke; FACT and the Digital Ambassadors; Cambridge Library and Cambridge Carbon Footprint; and Primary Studios.
Performing the Future was funded by the Arts Council of England National Lottery Project Funding and Horizon Digital Economy/ EPSRC.
A paper about the project was published in the Journal or Risk Research, as part of the Fate, Luck and Fortune special edition, edited by Prof Esther Eidinow:
Jacobs, R., Abbott, F., Urquhart, L. and Price, D., 2019. Performing the future: an artist-led project engaging with risk, uncertainty and environmental change. Journal of Risk Research, pp.1-15.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13669877.2019.1569104